The protests of truck drivers in the beginning of the month paralyzed roads in more than 10 states, impairing the transportation and the supply of products in some cities of the country. Blockages showed the dependence of Brazil on road transportation, that grows every year in spite of being six times more expensive than railways.
In 2012, 67% of loads transported through Brazil were displaced through roads (1.064 billion tons per kilometre), while 18% passed through railways (298 billion tons per kilometre). The data come from the research ‘Logistic costs of Brazil’, published in 2013 by the logistics consultancy company Ilos.
In 2006, roads accounted for 65% of transports while railways accounted for more than 20%.
Accordingly to specialists, the dependence on roads is even bigger than numbers show. “If you don’t consider iron ores in the total of loads transported [through railways], then the total transported through trucks roses up to 78%”, says the economist Josef Barat, former director of Anac (Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil – National Agency of Civil Aviation).
— Brazil is the only country where trucks prevail.
Among countries with continental dimensions, Brazil is the only one that decided to “shorten distances” through roads. The United States, which are smaller than Brazil if we don’t consider the State of Alaska, has a railway network seven times bigger: 228 thousand kilometres against 29 thousand kilometres.
France, Germany and India, whose areas are smaller than that of Brazil, also have a more developed railway network. Now, Brazil has the same quantity of railways than in 1922 (see more in the end).
Ilos’ study also shows that, in order to transport one thousand tons of load in a Brazilian railway, it is necessary to spend R$ 43 per kilometre. On the other side, with roads, this value is equivalent to R$ 259 (six times more).
With that, the transportation costs are rising in Brazil, achieving the mark of 11,5% of the GDP in 2012 — taking into account the costs with transportation, stocking and management. In the US, such costs are equivalent to 8,7% of the GDP.
Series of mistakes
Accordingly to Ilos’ general director and retired professor of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Paulo Fleury, the economic growth of the last two decades widened production sites, “increasing the transportation volume and distances”. Yet, as the railway network has not increased its offer, the task of delivering the production was assigned to the road transport.
— It is much easier and cheaper to build a road than a railway. That was what happened. Railways begun to wane and roads started to grow with no competition. It has not been a matter of choice. There were no choices, it was bad management.
Fleury mentions a succession of mistakes that moved railways away from the Brazilian reality, such as privatizations “with no planning” in the decade of 1990.
— The railway network was federal [before privatizations], but provided a loss of R$ 1 billion. Thus, railways waned due to a lack of investments. In 1994 and 1995, they broke the network into six parts and privatized the network. But that was a wrong decision. The network ended up with no connection, they became isolated isles. That was a privatization planning mistake.
Now, he says, the government has assured investments, but works are all delayed due to management problems, such as the change of construction companies, project modifications and difficulties in order to provide expropriations.
— Investments have been made, but they were badly managed. Everything had a delay. The North-South railway [which had a stretch established in 2014] was expected to become operational four years ago. Other projects are also paralyzed.
And from now on?
Between 2011 and 2014, 913,7 kilometres of railways were concluded, accordingly to the Ministry of Transports. The main delivery has been FNS’s (North-South Railway) final stretch, that goes from Palmas (TO) to Anápolis (GO). This stretch became operational in may last year, but begun working commercially in the end of February this year.
The works begun in the decade of 1980, however they were just resumed in 2007, during the administration of the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The initial promise was to deliver it up to 2010.
The other stretch of this railway that is being built goes from Ouro Verde (GO) to Estrela D’Oeste (SP). It should have been concluded in the end of last year but the expectation now is for December 2015.
Another railway now under construction is FIOL (West-East Integration Railway), that has 1.527 kilometres of extension within its three stretches, coming from Ilhéus (BA), passing through Caetité (BA) and Barreiras (BA) until it reaches Figueirópolis (TO), where it will get connected to FNS. The work is expected to be delivered in the end of 2016.
For the professor of mechanical engineering of the UFJF (Federal University of Juiz de Fora) Fernando Marques, due to the size of Brazil, it is necessary to invest even more.
— The government has been making some investments in the area, including with the North-South and West-East railway, but it is still too few if we compare to the size of the country. Because the network is not sufficient, infrastructure is necessary. It is necessary to build appropriate terminals. It is necessary to have a structure to properly deliver the load and to gather a sufficient quantity of load for the transportation.
Marques estimates the construction of a railway is four times more expensive than a road. Yet, he says, the investment is worthy.
— The cost is more expensive, once a railway is the sort of industrial investment, materials are much more sophisticated. But the operational cost is much cheaper, especially if we consider the cost of high-density loads that are transported in long distances.
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